The present invention relates to bacitracin-metal-polyether antibiotic complexes and their uses in (1) purifying bacitracin, (2) promoting growth in birds and mammals, (3) modifying rumen fluid by decreasing the acetate/propionate (A/P) ratio in ruminant animals, (4) controlling swine dysentery and (5) controlling coccidiosis in birds and mammals. Additionally, the present invention relates to a method of preparing bacitracin-metal-polyether antibiotic complexes.
Bacitracins are a well-known group of peptide antibiotics produced by strains of Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis. Plain or regular bacitracin is a mixture of bacitracin peptides including bacitracin A, bacitracin B and bacitracin F. Bacitracin A is the major microbiologically active component of bacitracin. Bacitracin B is also microbiologically active while bacitracin F, the oxidation product of bacitracins A and B, is microbiologically inactive. Bacitracin is useful in standard antibiotic applications including use as growth-promoting animal feed additive.
Polyether antibiotics are also a well-known group of antibiotics which have long been used in veterinary applications i.e., as growth-promoting agents and coccidiostats. These antibiotics are known to form complexes with numerous monovalent and divalent metal ions (Polyether Antibiotics--Naturally Occurring Acid Ionophores, Vol. 2, J. W. Westley, Ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1983, pp. 1-15), and sodium lasolocid, a commercially available polyether antibiotic, is known to form crystalline complexes with certain catecholamines (Westley, J. W., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 99, 6057 (1977)).